Improvement in belt-tightener



@atten it-atte gettati ffice.

JAMES M. HAWLEY, 0F HOLTON, INDIANA.

Letters Patent Na. 68,625, dated 'September 10, 1867.

IMPROVEMENT IN BELT-TIGHTENER.

TO ALL WHOM IT MAY COIICERIT:`

Be it known that I, JAMES M. HAWLEY, of Holton, in tl1e-co`unty of Ripley, and State of Indiana, have invented an improved Bclt-Tightener; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in Whichi Figure 1 is a perspective view of my improved belt-tightener.

Figure'2 is a view of one side of the tightener.

Figure 3 is a central section through the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

The object of this invention is Ato provide for keeping belts, which are used for communicating motion from one shaft to another, under proper tension, so that the belts shall not run so loose as to slip on their pulleys or drums. n

The nature of my invention consists in a contrivance which will spread apart or contract running belts at an intermediate point between their pulleys or drums, so as to take up theslack which may be caused by the stretching of the belts, and keep the `belts under proper tension, without interfering with their freedom to run,V

as will be hereinafter explained.

To enable others skilled in the art to nnderstandmy invention, Iwill describe its construction and operation. In the accompanying drawings, A represents a frame, which may be made of wood or metal, and which .should beseeured to a fixed object, such as thc ceiling of `a factory or the frame of a machine, so that the belt` to be tightened shall pass through it, as indicated by the red lines in iig. 1. This frame .A may be made in thc 'form of a bracket or pendant, or it may be constructed so as lto form part of the frame of a machine whose'belt it is designedto tighten. Between the longitudinal bars o f this frame two sides, B B, are applied in any suitable manner, so that they can be moved toward or from eacli other, and prevented from displacement. These carriages or slides carry rollers or drums C C, which are allowed to turn freely about their axes, and which' should be longer than the width of the belt for which they are adapted to tighten. At an intermediate point -between the roller-slides B B, and'supported lin `bearings a a upon the longitudinal bars of the frame A, is a.

shaft, D, carrying on one end .ofl a perforated hub, 6, or a hand-crank, and on the other end a ratchet-wheel, c, into Vthe teeth of whicheugages a pawl, d, so as te prevent the shaft D from rotatingbackward, when not required to do so. The roller-slides B B are both attached to the .shaft D by belts or chains g g, which wind around this shaft in opposite directions, as shown in figs. 1 and 3, so that by turning shaft D the two rollers or i drums, with their slides, will approach each other.

One mode of using the contrivance thus described is to pass the upper portion of the belt below the upper i i roller, and the lower portion of the belt over the lower roller, so that when the two rollers are caused to approach each other the slack in belt will be taken up. If the space between a belt will not admit of this contraction, the winding shaft D will be arranged at oneend of the frame A with cords or` chains extending from the roller-slides, and passing around this shaft, so that by turning it the rollers can be caused to recede from each other, and thus take up the slack of a belt by spreading it apart. In some instances a belt may be tightened by having two rollers applied in one sliding-frame, so as to tighten such belt by causing it to deviate more or less from a straight line.

It will be seen from the above description that the loss of time required to cut and lace a belt which has t stretched so as to run too loose, is avoided, and that by my'nvcntiona belt can be quickly tightened whilst t running, as well as when it is at rest. To avoid stretching a belt too much, it can be slackened, when not in immediate use, by throwingr oif the dog or pawl d, so as to release the rollers.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-' A belt-tightener, consisting of the sliding-rollers G C, roller-frames B, windlass D, and cords or chainsgg, applied to a frame, A, and operating substantially as described. p

, 4JAMES M. HAWLEY.

Witnesses:

Trios. H. Hnnnis, ANDREW J. RALSTON. 

